Important news from Tonie

Google’s third-quarter results trounced Wall Street expectations as good cost controls helped boost the Internet search leader’s profit by about 26 percent. The world’s No. 1 Internet search engine said its net income in the three months ended September 30 totaled $2.73 billion, up from $2.17 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts applauded Google’s results. “Christmas came early for Google shareholders. It’s all about the core business. You drive that extra revenue and expense becomes secondary. It was a great beat on the bottom line. It’s not necessarily because they are controlling expenses. It’s because they are driving more revenue”, said Colin Gillis of BGC Partners. RIM’s co-CEOs apologized to millions of BlackBerry customers for a four-day outage that tarnished it’s image and set back the drive to catch up with Apple and other smartphone rivals. The service disruption could cost RIM millions of dollars in compensation to customers who lost service.  The company did not say for certain whether it would compensate customers. Public relations specialists said its response to the crisis has been slow and poorly communicated. Spotify, the European music streaming service backed by digital entrepreneur Sean Parker, has more than 250,000 paying users in the U.S. since it opened up shop in July, according to three people familiar with its data. Digital music subscription services are hoping to pick up the slack of lost CD sales for the music business by offering large libraries of songs for an-all-you-can-eat monthly fee by streaming songs over computers, mobile devices and more recently in cars. A court slapped a temporary ban on the sale of Samsung’s latest Galaxy tablet in Australia, handing rival Apple another legal victory in the two firms’ global patent war. Whilst the ruling is a blow for Samsung, the Australian market is not large. A more important legal battle starts later today, when a Californian court begins hearing Apple’s bid to ban sales of Galaxy products in the United States. Netflix’s U.S. customers will be able to watch shows like “Gossip Girl” and “The Vampire Diaries” online after it signed programing deals with CBS and Warner Bros for shows from their joint venture, The CW television network. Under the pact, older-season episodes of some shows, including “One Tree Hill” and “Nikita”, will available October 15 while others are set for January.

* Merchant Commodity down 36 pct this year* Blenheim Capital down 25 pct* Clive Capital up 11.5 pct in Sept after bearish betBy Laurence Fletcher and Tommy WilkesLONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - A sharp sell-off in commodity markets in the past few weeks is wreaking havoc with the track records of some of the biggest-name funds in the sector, many of which now languish near the bottom of the $2 trillion industry’s performance tables.Funds like Mike Coleman’s Merchant Commodity fund and Willem Kooyker’s Blenheim Capital sit on hefty double-digit losses for the year after investors worried about global economic growth recently dumped gold, copper and cocoa for less risky assets.The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index of 19 commodities shed 13 percent during September, a drop which has echoes of May when many star managers betting on rising prices were caught on the hop by a quick sell-off.The size of the September hit, on top of losses suffered earlier this year, means many managers who enjoyed bumper profits from the long commodity bull run now face the likelihood of a down year.The average hedge fund investing in the Energy and Basic Materials sectors has slid 15.5 percent this year to end-September, making it the worst-performing strategy as measured by Hedge Fund Research’s HFRI index.”Some commodity hedge funds have struggled due to their markets trading more in line with risk appetite than supply-demand characteristics — with concerns over the sovereign debt crisis overshadowing fundamentals — and lacking clear direction,” said Credo Capital’s head of research Gemma Godfrey.”Oil, for example, has seen more than 10 percent swings in a week, whilst trending sideward. This also spooked some managers to cut positions ahead of strong rallies.”Brent crude lost around 7 percent last quarter, while London copper lost more than a fifth to end last month near 14-month lows.Even gold, which had gained about a third this year and provided one of the most profitable trades for many managers, subsequently slumped more than 10 percent in September.TRACK RECORDS TARNISHEDThe losses from commodities also come in a year that is tarnishing some star managers’ records across the industry.John Paulson, seen by some as making the greatest ever trade when he bet against subprime debt in 2007, is down 47 percent in his Advantage Plus fund.The $1.1 billion Merchant Commodity Fund, a fundamentally-driven commodity long-short fund run out of Singapore, lost 5.4 percent last month, said a source who saw the performance data.This leaves the fund — which was profitable in each of the past seven years and which racked up annual gains of more than 30 percent in 2005, 2006 and 2007 — down 36 percent this year, manager Mike Coleman told Reuters, although he declined to comment on reasons for the losses.BlueGold Global Fund, run by the firm’s chief investment officer Pierre Andurand, is down 0.4 percent last month to Sept. 16, according to figures seen by Reuters, leaving it 25 percent in the red for the year.And Willem Kooyker’s Blenheim Capital Management, a New Jersey based fund estimated in May to manage $5 billion, and a big commodities investor, lost 15.5 percent in September and is down 25 percent in 2011, a person familiar with the fund said.Meanwhile, commodities giant Armajaro, co-founded by coffee and cocoa trader Anthony Ward, saw its flagship Commodities fund fall more than 5 percent last month to September 23, taking year-to-date losses to more than 7 percent, according to figures seen by Reuters.The firm’s Emerging Markets fund, a macro fund betting on equities, derivatives and fixed income, has also suffered in 2011’s sell-off, losing 14.4 percent this year.A spokesman for the firm, which manages $2.2 billion in assets, declined to give reasons for the performanceStar commodities trader Paul Touradji’s $840 million Global Resources Offshore fund was down 17.5 percent this year to end-August, according to figures seen by Reuters. Last month Touradji said he would return to full-time trading to try and save his fund from its first-ever annual loss.A spokesman for Touradji declined to comment.Not all funds were stung by September’s sell-off — some were able to profit from falling prices.Clive Capital, the $4 billion London-based hedge fund firm set up by Chris Levett, jumped 11.5 percent in September after taking a bearish position on commodities, two people who have seen the numbers said.This leaves the fund down 1.4 percent in 2011. Clive Capital declined to comment.

* H1 EBITDA $1.62 bln, poll forecast $1.65 bln* Shares up more than 10 percent in London* Will pay interim, special dividendOct 12 (Reuters) - Russian steelmaker Evraz on Wednesday announced its first interim dividends since the global financial crisis hit in 2008, sending its shares sharply higher despite missing estimates with its first half results.”As a result of the 1H 2011 performance and the strength of our balance sheet the directors have decided to resume the payment of dividends to shareholders,” chief financial officer Giacomo Baizini said in a statement.”We are declaring an interim dividend of US$89 million or 34 percent of our net income in 1H 2011. We are also declaring the payment of a special dividend of $402 million.”The payout is equivalent to $0.60 a share, and the special dividend equals $2.70 a share.At 1656 GMT, the shares were up 10.4 percent or $1.63 at $17.25.Evraz, part-owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, has improved its liquidity position this year by reducing total debt to $6.04 billion at the end of the first half, compared to $7.81 billion at the end of 2010.Fitch Ratings last month upgraded Evraz’s debt rating to ‘BB-’ from ‘B+’ on the back of the company’s successful refinancing and debt reduction efforts.”All in all, the much improved balance sheet with no significant short-term maturities makes the results decent and the company less vulnerable in case of weak market conditions,” VTB analysts wrote in a note.Although the shares surged, the company’s first-half net profit and earnings before depreciation, taxation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in below market expectations.First half net profit was $263 million, while analysts polled by Reuters expected $614 million, up from a year-earlier loss of $270 million.Evraz also said one-off losses related to the conversion of debts had reduced the figure from $494 million.First half EBITDA was $1.63 billion, up from $1.15 billion in the year-earlier period and just below the $1.65 billion poll forecast.Sales were $8.4 billion, up from $6.38 billion and more than the $8.14 billion poll forecast.CHALLENGING MARKETEvraz also warned that it has experienced weaker trading in recent weeks due to lower production and export prices in part caused by the challenging global economic environment.”The group’s recent trading has been impacted by scheduled repairs, lower production volumes, a weak market environment in the Czech Republic and a change in product mix in South Africa,” Chief Executive Alexander Frolov said in a statement.”In addition, in recent weeks, there have been some decreases in export prices,” he added.In China, the world’s leading steel producer, Shanghai rebar prices dropped 11 percent in September.The company, which does not ship significant volumes there, earned 34 percent of its revenues in Russia last year and 24 percent in the Americas, with another 10 percent of sales to the European market.In a separate interview with Reuters Insider, Baizini said the company is prepared for any market slowdown.”We make sure that we are not producing any steel which is unsold,” he said.”We do keep monitoring the situation, early days, but we’re ready for it.”

Bangalore-based Infosys said consolidated net profit rose to 19.06 billion rupees ($387 million) for the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, from 17.37 billion rupees reported a year ago.A Reuters poll of brokerages had forecast a profit of 18.91 billion rupees for the company.

The findings from research conducted by two former Census Bureau economists offer insight into the sluggish nature of the recovery. The U.S. economy relies on consumer spending to fuel around two-thirds of total output.The study, conducted by Gordon Green and John Coder and published by Sentier Research, found median annual incomes adjusted for inflation dropped 6.7 percent between June 2009 and June 2011, more than double the 3.2 percent drop experienced during the recession.This knocked real median annual household income down to $49,909 in June 2011 from $55,309 in December 2007, when the recession began. Essentially, American households continued to lose ground even though growth had resumed.Economic growth in the first half of 2011 has been particularly disappointing, advancing at less than a 1 percent annual rate. In the second quarter, consumer spending rose at only a 0.7 percent pace, the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2009.President Barack Obama, whose reelection prospects could hinge on a stronger labor market recovery, has proposed a $447 billion stimulus program aimed at cutting unemployment. The U.S. jobless rate, which peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009, has been stuck above 9 percent for the past five months.The research indicates the risk of deflation, which the Federal Reserve has fought off with aggressive monetary policy, has been even more pronounced than previously thought.While falling prices sound like a good thing, a downward spiral in costs and salaries can lead to a prolonged period of contraction, say economists.Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently signaled the central bank might be forced to act if inflation or inflation expectations fell substantially.